James Caton Takes Wing Role

The 20 year old began his career having come through Bolton Wanderers youth academy, but he moved on to Blackpool in the search for more first team action, but found his opportunities limited to two appearances.

He has also taken in loan spells with Accrington Stanley and Chester City, but he will be disappointed his career record so far stands at one starting appearance and four substitute appearances. However in that short time on the pitch, he has already opened his scoring tally as he found the net last April for Chester during his spell with them.

The manager is excited by the potential that the player has and he believes that he will grow and really develop in his time with us.

Caton joins having had a number of conversations with Micky Mellon over the last few weeks, and has put pen to paper on a two year deal.

Speaking to the Official Site after signing, we have of course now added to our Blackpool links this summer, and Caton explained he was first made aware of the interest through our new Chief Executive Matt Williams.

'I was made aware of the interest by Matt Williams and when I came down and saw the club and spoke to Micky it didn't take long to make my mind up. I got a feel off the manager that he's really buzzing about me, because he believed in me it made me want to join the club. There is a good feel about Shrewsbury and the club is looking to do things the right way.'

With our record of developing younger players and with how quickly fans take to them such as now departed Jon Taylor, Mellon will be hoping that Caton will turn out to be a big hit with the faithful.

Describing himself as a player, he added.

'The fans can expect a bit of entertaining football, I'm a player that likes to get the ball and run at players to create chances. If they are looking for a bit of entertainment then they are looking at the right player.'

Confidence isn't short for the youngster and that's always good to see.

Having predominantly been a winger, and being able to play on both flanks, Caton also says he can play in the hole and the No 10 role as well, so he wouldn't just categorize himself as a wideman, but he knows ultimately it comes down to how Mellon wants to use him on the pitch going forward now, either way, he's focused on taking his chance and impressing.

Mellon himself said of the signing, that he'd been a long term admirer of the player that Caton could be having first seen him at Bolton.

'I've known him for a long time since he was at Bolton and then when he went to Blackpool with my pal Ian Holloway I was interested to see how he did. He's always been somebody that really interested me.'

Mellon goes on to say that in many ways Caton is an 'old fashioned wide player' who is brave, and just wants to be on the ball, create and excite the fans, and he's got good ball work and control as well, so added to his pace, he's a very tricky customer in full flow.

'With his age, he's got an awful lot of potential to realise. I was just so interested in signing him and got on to him early so I'm delighted to get him on board just the like the other signings we've made. He's an exciting player.'

Good to see that Mellon is going for a balance as well, some established players for experience and know how, other middle experienced players but with a decent record like Collins, and then youngsters with something to prove like Caton and Demetriou.

We're putting together a squad for the now to do the job we want to achieve, but there's also an eye on development and the future, so with the board talking earlier about learning the mistakes from past transfer policies and the over reliance on loans, clearly that does look to have been addressed.